Betoken glad. Lo; now, apparent all,
Aflant the dew-bright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majefty abroad;
And sheds the fhining day, that burnish'd plays
On rocks, and hills, and towers, and wandering streams,
High-gleaming from afar. Prime chearer Light! 90
Of all material beings firft, and beft!
Efflux divine! Nature's refplendent robe !
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In uneffential gloom; and thou, O Son!
Soul of furrounding worlds! in whom best seen
Shines out thy Maker! may I fing of thee?
'Tis by thy fecret, ftrong, attractive force,
As with a chain indiffoluble bound,
Thy fyftem rolls entire; from the far bourne
Of utmost Saturn, wheeling wide his round
Of thirty years; to Mercury, whose disk
Can fcarce be caught by philofophic eye,
Loft in the near effulgence of thy blaze.
Informer of the planetary train !
Without whofe quickening glance their cumbrous orbs
Were brute unlovely mafs, inert and dead,
And not, as now, the green abødes of life!
How many forms of being wait on thee!
Inhaling fpirit; from th' unfetter'd mind,
By thee fublim'd, down to the daily race,
The mixing myriads of thy fetting beam.
The vegetable world is alfo thine,
Parent of Seafons! who the pomp precede
That waits thy throne, as through thy vaft domain,
Annual, along the bright ecliptic road,
In world-rejoicing ftate, it moves fublime.
Mean-time th' expecting nations, circled gay
With all the various tribes of foodful earth,
Implore thy bounty, or fend grateful up
A common hymn: while, round thy beaming car, 120
High-feen, the Seasons lead, in sprightly dance
Harmonious knit, the rofy-finger'd Hours,
The Zephyrs floating loofe, the timely Rains,
Of bloom ethereal the light-footed Dews,
And foften'd into joy the furly Storms.
Thefe, in fucceffive turn, with lavish hand,
Shower every beauty, every fragrance shower,
Herbs, flowers, and fruits; till, kindling at thy touch, From land to land is flufh'd the vernal year.
Nor to the furface of enliven'd earth,
Graceful with hills and dales, and leafy woods,
Her liberal treffes, is thy force confin'd:
But to the bowel'd cavern darting deep,
The mineral kinds confefs thy mighty power.
Effulgent, hence the veiny marble fhines;
Hence Labour draws his tools; hence burnish'd War
Gleams on the day; the nobler works of Peace
Hence blefs mankind, and generous Commerce binds The round of nations in a golden chain.
Th' unfruitful rock itfelf, impregn'd by thee, 140 In dark retirement forms the lucid ftone.
The lively diamond drinks thy purest rays,
Collected light, compact; that, polish'd bright,
And all its native luftre let abroad,
Dares, as it sparkles on the fair-one's breast,
With vain ambition emulate her eyes.
At thee the ruby lights its deepening glow,
And with a waving radiance inward flames.
From thee the Sapphire, folid æther, takes
Its hue cerulean; and, of evening tinct,
The purple-streaming amethyft is thine.
With thy own fmile the yellow topaz burns,
Nor deeper verdure dyes the robe of Spring,
When first she gives it to the southern gale,
Than the green emerald shows. But, all combin'd,
Thick through the whitening opal play thy beams;
Or, flying several from its furface, form
A trembling variance of revolving hues,
As the fitc varies in the gazer's hand.
The very dead creation, from thy touch,
Affumes à mimic life. By thee refin'd,
In brighter mazes the relucent ftream
Plays o'er the mead. The precipice abrupt,
Projecting horror on the blacken'd flood,
Softens at thy return. The defart joys
Wildly, through all his melancholy bounds.
Rude ruins glitter; and the briny deep,
Seen from fome pointed promontory's top,
Far to the blue horizon's utmoft verge,
Restless, reflects a floating gleam. But this,
And all the much-transported Muse can fing,
Are to thy beauty, dignity, and use,
Unequal far; great delegated fource
Of light, and life, and grace, and joy below!
How shall I then attempt to fing of Him!
Who, Light Himself, in uncreated light
Invested deep, dwells awefully retir'd
From mortal eye, or angel's purer ken;
Whofe fingle fmile has, from the first of time,
Fill'd, o'erflowing, all those lamps of Heaven,
That beam for ever through the boundless sky:
But, fhould he hide his face, th' astonish'd fun,
And all th' extinguish'd stars, would loosening reel
Wide from their spheres, and Chaos come again.
And yet was every faultering tongue of Man, 185 Almighty Father! filent in thy praise,
Thy works themselves would raise a general voice,
Ev'n in the depth of folitary woods
By human foot untrod; proclaim thy power,
And to the quire celestial Thee resound,
Th' eternal cause, support, and end of all!
To me be Nature's volume broad-display'd;
And to peruse its all-instructing page,
Or, haply catching inspiration thence,
Some easy paffage, raptur'd, to translate,
My fole delight; as through the falling glooms
Penfive I ftray, or with the rifing dawn
On Fancy's eagle-wing excurfive foar.
Now, flaining up the heavens, the potent fun
Melts into limpid air the high-rais'd clouds,
And morning fogs, that hover'd round the hills
In party-colour'd bands; till wide unveil'd
The face of Nature fhines, from where earth seems, Far ftretch'd around, to meet the bending sphere.
Half in a blufh of clustering rofes loft,
Dew-dropping Coolness to the fhade retires;
There, on the verdant turf, or flowery bed,
By gelid founts and careiefs rills to muse;
While tyrant Heat, difpreading through the fky,
With rapid fway, his burning influence darts
On man, and beast, and herb, and tepid ftream.
Who can unpitying fee the flowery race,
Shed by the morn, their new-flufh'd bloom refign,
Before the parching beam? So fade the fair,
When fevers revel through their azure veins.
But one, the lofty follower of the fun,
Sad when he fits, fhuts up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns,
Points her enamour'd bofom to his ray.
Home, from his morning task, the swain retreats; His flock before him stepping to the fold: While the full-udder'd mother lows around The chearful cottage, then expecting food, 'The food of innocence and health! The daw, The rook and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks That the calm village in their verdant arms, Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight; Where on the mingling boughs they fit embower'd, All the hot noon, till cooler hours arise.
Faint, underneath, the houthold fowls convene; 230
And, in a corner of the buzzing fhade,
The house-dog, with the vacant greyhound, lies,
Out-ftretch'd, and fleepy. In his flumbers, one
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults
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